Saturday, January 21, 2012

A LITTLE HELP

For Christmas I got my oldest two, Bowden (8) and Lucy (6), fishing rods. It's part of my ongoing commitment to be intentional about building in activities with the kids that are fun, but also naturally create opportunities to talk and hangout. My hope is that they will love fishing and over the years we'll spend a lot of quality time talking about stuff as we cast and retrieve, cast and retrieve, cast and retrieve. Plus, fishing is just plain awesome. I love fishing. For my birthday I bought myself a fishing rod and a license. I'm all in! Let's do this thing.

The only problem is that this past Wednesday we went down to Lake Fulmore and spent two futile hours fishing. During the first several casts I watched with joy as Bowden and Lucy were totally caught up in the excitement of fishing for the first time. The lake became a mysterious and wondrous thing as they imagined how exciting it would be to feel a tug on their pole. You could almost read Bowden's mind as he watched the bobber and imagined fish investigating the meal worm and power bait on the end of his hook beneath the murky water. However, as time went by and nothing happened they began to turn aside to other pursuits. Bowden laid his pole aside and declared that he was going to go explore the lake shore. Lucy amused herself finding sticks to throw into the water before catching up with Bowden who had discovered a dead fish among the reeds a few hundred feet down the shore. They were both excited at the discovery because it proved that there were fish in the lake. Apparently they had begun to doubt that. So for a time they resumed casting, but then Lucy wondered out loud if the dead fish they had found may have been "the last one." Then they both put their poles down again and continued their exploring.

Now I know they're young, and I can't reasonably expect them to display the patience of one who is more mature in years, but I'm afraid if the next fishing trip and the one after that likewise fail to deliver up a fish the kids will lose interest in fishing altogether.

Do any of you Southern California types know of any good fishing spots?